Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 176

148
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(AUGUST, 1931
Cuddy-An early use of this word is quoted below :
"They being on board, their men in our misor shrouds, I left the deck and came into the Kuddy."- English Factories in India, ed. Foster (1661-4), p. 192.
Cunohunee.-Yule's earliest quotation from a European writer is from Bernier, but the word ooours earlier in Pelsaert as well as in Mundy.
f1628.) "Other Olasses fof dancers) are named 'horokenis and hentainis, who have various styles of singing and dancing, but who are all alike accomodating people."--Remonatrantie, trans. Moreland and Geyl, p. 83. The learned editor suggests that " Horckenis' may represent the sub-oaste Harakiya 'and Hentrinis is presumably formed from 'hansna' (to laugh) and may be a recognised description or merely & nickname.” But wisi hurakni is given in Fallon's Dictionary and means a dancing girl or harlot'; and Mr. Crooke oites a proverb which runs thus :
Huga, Sukka, hurkani, Gujar aur Jat
In mon afak kaha, Jagannath kd bhdt. "Pipe, tobacco, courtesan, the Gujar and the Jat are all one, like the rice of Jagannath's temple whioh all castes may eat together."-Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces, II, 448. See also ibid., 498. I venture to suggest that 'Hentainis' is & misreading or copyist's error, and that Pelsaert wrote, or meant to write, Kentainis, i.e., kanchanís; and that this is the correot explanation appears clearly from the following passage in Mundy :
(1632.) “There are also deunoeinge wenches, of whom there are divers sorte, as Lullenees, Haroanees, Kenchances and Doomenees (all whoores though not in soe publique & manner) beinge of severall Oastes and use different manner of musiok."-Travels of Peter Mundy, od. Sir R. Temple, II, 216.
Curnum.-Yule cites only a late use of this word. Here is an early one :
[1633.] "He promised to see that Carnam Vinoots (i.., Venkata) discharged his debt, but this is not yet performed."-English Factories in India, ed. Foster, 1630-33, p. 278.
Cuscuss, Cass. [1632.) "In Agra men of qualitie, in tyme of heat, have little roomes accomodated after the manner oalled Okusse Connaee, where they sitt Coole, haveinge also a great artificiall fanne of linnen, which hanges downe from aloft, and by pulling from without side, it swings forward and backward caweeing a great deale of ayre within side. Of theis Ckusse Connaes wee have one att the English howe."--Travels of Peter Mundy, ed. Sir R. Temple, II, 191.
Deloll.-This familiar word is first found in a mutilated form in Varthema :
[c. 1510] "The merchants [in Caliout] have this oustom when they wish to bell or purchase their merchandise that is, wholesale : They always sell by the hands of the cortor or of the Lella, that is, of the broker."-Travels of L. di Varthema, trans. Badger, p. 168.
Dr. Badger suggests that cortor'is & contraction of the Portuguese Mercador and that 'Lella' is a corruption of daliai.
Dewallee.-The earliest English illustration in Hobson-Jobson is of 1671, but there is a much earlier European description in Barbosa :
fc. 1616.) "No Nayre woman may go into the towns under pain of death, save once only in the year for which one special night is set apart.... On this night, more than twenty thousand women, all Nayres go in, for the most part, in Caliout. In their honour, the dwellers in the city set out many lamps in the streets, and the houses of the principal persons are hung with Carpets and decorated with rich fabrics."--The Book of Duarte Bar. bosa, trans. Dames, II, 50.
The translator says the special night is the Tubd-udvre, New moon day in the month of Pulám (October-November), which corresponds to the Dipávali season.